Have you bought a good bottle of wine, but it's still a little too early to taste it? To fully benefit from the aging potential of a wine, it is important to offer it the best storage conditions. So let's find out how to age a wine .
Aging a wine in the best conditions
Wine is very sensitive to its environment, and the slightest disturbing element can have consequences on its quality and balance. To ensure that you properly age your bottles of red wines, white wines, and even rosé wines or champagne , you must offer them the best conditions.
Protect wine from bad odors
This is not necessarily known to everyone, but wine has the capacity to capture the smells that surround it, in particular thanks to the porosity of the cork stopper. It is therefore strongly recommended to store your wine bottles away from sources of strong and unpleasant odors , such as a tank of fuel oil or open cans of paint.
Protect the wine from light
In contact with light, natural or artificial, wine tends to oxidize more quickly. So, it is advisable to place your wines with good aging capacity in a space protected from light . This is all the more true if your beautiful bottles are made of white glass, as is the case with certain white and rosé wines.
Protect the wine from vibrations
The slightest imperceptible movement of the wine can start its oxidation, or create unwanted chemical reactions. For optimal wine aging conditions, you must place your bottles in a quiet place , far from the garage where the car is constantly coming in and out, far from the washing machine, or even far from road traffic.
Protect wine from humidity
It is often said that wine must be protected from humidity. In fact, excessive humidity will have no effect on the aging of the wine. On the other hand, this can damage the label , and cause a good bottle of a Grand Cru Classé to lose value, for example. Not to mention that it can make reading the label difficult.
On the other hand, too dry air can dry out the cork, which can retract and allow air to pass into the bottle, triggering the process of oxidation of the wine. It is therefore advisable, for ideal aging conditions, to choose a storage space with a humidity level of 70% on average .
Protect the wine from temperature variations
A constant temperature ensures that the wine ages peacefully, without the risk of creating involuntary and not necessarily desired chemical reactions. Indeed, wine is sensitive to temperature variations , and the ideal storage temperature is between 12 and 18°C depending on the type of wine.
Aging a wine: the different storage methods
Not everyone is lucky enough to have a natural cellar in their basement. Fortunately, there are other wine storage solutions that ensure optimal aging.
The buried wine cellar
The natural, buried wine cellar is obviously ideal, since it allows you to store all your bottles of wine in a dedicated and generally rather stylish space. But you must ensure that you meet all the conditions for aging wine: a constant temperature, a good humidity level, darkness, calm, no strong odor nearby... Indeed, according to the depth, type of soil, or even exposure and use, buried wine cellars do not always provide optimal conditions.
The tasting wine cellar
The tasting wine cellar , or service wine cellar , takes the form of an electric wine cellar to be placed wherever you want. Although this type of model is generally very stylish, and fits perfectly into a kitchen, it does not allow you to store many bottles.
On the other hand, all the conditions are met, and are even adjustable, to provide the wines with perfect storage and aging conditions. Generally speaking, the electric wine cellar ensures a constant temperature, protection against light and odors, and a perfect humidity level.
The aging cellar
The aging wine cellar often has the same characteristics as the tasting wine cellars, but its storage capacity is greater. More voluminous, it can then accommodate up to 300 bottles in optimal conservation conditions.
The advantage with this type of cellar is that it is entirely dedicated to aging. Thus, you only rarely open the door, and leave the wine alone, unlike the service cellar which is intended to be opened regularly.
Do you have a wine cellar available, and are you a lover of great wines? Have you thought about supplementing your cellar with good bottles of Provence wine from the Berne estate?
